Although a massive loss I would say things are looking up for Qantas. Definite change in tone coming from head office which would suggest all the 'crap' has been lumped into this loss and we will see a remarkable return to profit next year. The capacity war seems to be over with both Virgin and Qantas stowing the handbags for later. For all of Joyce's faults it seems now that Qantas is going to get some sort of legislative change that will enable some more foriegn cash through the door. We even have Qantas confidently stating they are looking forward to exercising options on the 787-9.
“Those 50 options and purchase rights still exist,” says chief financial officer Gareth Evans. “We’ve pushed back the first couple of those from 2016 into 2017 and we’re very much looking forward to exercising those options and bringing those aircraft into the Qantas fleet.”
“We’ve got to get through the transformation of the business first and drive the international business into profitability, and we’re well on track to do that. Then we will be making the future investment decisions and what we’ve got is a lot of flexibility and some great opportunities to bring some new generation very efficient aircraft into the Qantas fleet,” he adds.
So, in 18 months the business will be profitable with the new aircraft about to arrive and Qantas may even be in an expansion mode. Joyce will leave which will make many happy, what won't make people happy though is that he will be leaving with.a massive bonus for overseeing such a remarkable business transformation, but hey we can't have everything.